How Important Is Speaking When Learning A Language?

When learning a new language you might ask yourself if being able to speak the language is actually important. The short answer is that yes, being able to speak the language is important and it’s something you need to be able to do.

While you can avoid speaking for a while, and it may even be beneficial to do this at the start of your journey, at the end of the day you need to be able to actually speak a language if you want to reach a decent level.  

Speaking Is The Key To Communication

The whole point of a language is to facilitate communication. We learn new languages so that we can actually speak to people. Of course we have to understand what is being said too, so while speaking may only be half of the equation, it’s still extremely important.

Without speaking there is no real communication.

Speaking Allows Us To Build Relationships

The role of Speaking in communication is hugely important as it allows us to actually build relationships with other people. If we can only understand the language then we can’t interact properly with anyone. 

We can’t build friendships or have any other sort of relationship without us speaking the language, the communication would all be one sided and relationships can’t be formed like this.

I guess you could argue that you could do this all through writing, rather than actual speech, but I think this would eventually reach its limit, there is something special about speaking to another human and we really need it to communicate with each other properly.  

Speaking Gives Us Confidence

Speaking is often seen at the hardest part of learning a language and we often like to avoid it, so if you can actually do it, and have a good conversation, you are going to feel like you are making progress and its going be a big confidence boost.

Being able to speak is one of the best ways to show that our studies are actually leading somewhere and we can actually see the result of our work. Little boosts in confidence are important in language learning.

However, it’s a double edged sword and if you mess a conversation up, it can have the opposite effect and can actually knock your confidence quite a lot.

(You can read more about – How To Improve Speaking In A New Language)

Speaking Helps Us Overcome The Fear Of Mistakes

While speaking can both build up and knock down our confidence you will find that the more you do it, the less afraid you will become.

The more comfortable we become with talking, the more we will realise that it’s okay if we make mistakes. Speaking really is how you overcome the fear and this is why it such an important part of language learning.

Once you realise it’s fine to make mistakes when speaking you really won’t care about making mistakes in other areas of the language. You can then just focus on making progress, which is a much more healthy mindset to have.

Just think about our native languages, we make mistakes all the time and they don’t affect us in the slightest, most times we don’t even notice it’s happened and this is simply because we are not afraid to make mistakes and have confidence that we know the language.  

(You can read more about – Overcoming The Fear Of Speaking A Foreign Language)

Speaking Forces Us To Use And Strengthen Our Memory

Speaking is very powerful for our overall improvement in the language, mainly due to how helpful it can be for our memory, which is extremely important. The better our memory is, the more comfortable we become with the language. 

When you speak you have to actively recall words and the more you do this, the stronger your ability becomes.

When you first learn a word you may only recognise it passively, but the more times you see it and the more times you force yourself to use it, the word will slowly enter your active vocabulary and just keep getting stronger and stronger.

Think about your native language, the words you forget the most are usually the obscure ones that you do not use that often. The more we speak a language, the better our memory will become.

(You can read more about – Is It Normal To Forget Words You Have Learned In Your New Language?)

Speaking Helps Us Become Faster At The Language

Speaking is actually important  for making us faster in the language. When we speak it forces us to actively use the language which can be a strain on our brain as we process what we want to say. This is why we speak slowly, but the good thing is that the more we train this process, the quicker it will become.

This is exactly what we have done in our native language; we speak so often that it is just automatic now. We do not really need to use much effort to process things. We just open our mouth and words fall out.

The exact same processes are happening when we speak in our new language, but we are not so comfortable with it, and this is why it’s slow. We just simply need to talk more to get more comfortable with the process and it too can become automatic after a while.

The more we practice speaking, the faster we will get.  

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Speaking In Your New Language)

Speaking Shows Us Our Blind Spots

Speaking is very important as it gives us immediate feedback and makes us very aware of our blind spots in the language.

If you are talking to someone and don’t know how to say something, there is no hiding from it. You are going to be directly faced with a weakness. You may not have even realised you needed these words until you actually wanted to use them.

Speaking is very good at showing you where you actually are in a language and what you need to focus on. You can really use your speaking as a measuring stick, which you can’t really do as easily with other areas of the language.

(You can read more about – What Are The Benefits Of Practising Your Speaking Skills In A Second Language?)

Speaking Can Help Us Get Better At Listening

The more we speak the more we will be used to how words should sound and what order they should be in. Having a good understanding of this allows us to work out what other people are saying.

This is why in our own language, if we don’t quite catch what someone said, we will repeat it back and then although we may say what we think we heard, it will click and become clear what they actually said.

Somehow repeating it back makes us understand what we didn’t quite hear. This is because we are comparing what we thought we heard to what we would say ourselves. We try and fit what we hear into our database of things we might say until we find a similar match and then this is when it clicks and you realise what they said.

This is easy as we have a huge database in our own language, but you will find this happens in your new language too. Even as a beginner I found it easier to decipher what someone said simply as I knew how to already say what they were saying.

I was able to get that “click” simply because I knew how to say the words.

(You can read more about – Can You Learn A Language Without Speaking?)

Speaking Helps With Pronunciation

Speaking is also important as it is the only real way you can get your pronunciation correct.

You can listen to how things should sound, but really to get it right, you need to do it yourself and actually speak. Speaking is all about moving the muscles in your face and this is why you physically have to do it.

Pronunciation is like a form of exercise, the more you practice, the more you are you are going to improve. 

(You can read more about – How To Improve Pronunciation When Learning A New Language)

Conclusion

As you can now see, speaking a language is important and it is something you need to do.

It really is our main communication tool in a language, without it we really cannot express ourselves or gain confidence.  It also helps us strengthen our memory and become faster at processing the language.  If you avoid speaking you will suffer and you will not make as much process.

It really is an important part of the process and although its difficult, it is worth the effort.

(You can read more about – Resources To Help With Your Speaking In A New Language)